NEW DELHI, Sept 18: The All Parties Hurriyat Conference has asked the Organization of Islamic Conference to demand a special UN envoy for Kashmir, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said on Wednesday from New York.

In a separate statement he said that the Indian-backed polls now under way in Kashmir were a farce and as such were no substitute for a UN-supported plebiscite to decide the way ahead in the region.

Mirwaiz told a meeting of Islamic foreign ministers in New York to attend the UN General Assembly, that South Asia had become irretrievably dangerous with its nuclear capabilities and without a solution to the Kashmir problem this was not likely to change.

“You know that any unintentional spark could lead this region of South Asia to the brink of nuclear disaster. It is almost implausible to believe that India and Pakistan will either cap or renounce their respective nuclear genies after they have escaped the South Asian bottle unless the chief source of antagonism between the two counties — Kashmir — is resolved,” Maulvi Farooq told the OIC ministers.

It has always been the position of the APHC that a constructive and meaningful dialogue with the Government of India is possible provided there are no conditions from any party, he said.

Criticizing what he sees as a major failing in the UN stance in the region, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said: “It is symptomatic of the United Nations approach that greater emphasis is placed on the reduction of tensions rather than on the settlement of the core issue, i.e., Kashmir.”

He said this helped give importance to “superficial moves and temporary solutions” even though it is known that such moves and solutions do not soften the animosities of the parties nor allay the life and death concerns and anxieties of the people most directly affected.

Commenting on recent exchanges between India and Pakistan over the issue, Miwaiz said: “There is a misplaced as well as dangerous focus of the wrong-headed talk, about the sanctity of the LoC in Kashmir.”

To regard this line as a solution is to regard disease as remedy. Any kind of agreement procured to that end, it will invite resentment and revolt against whichever leadership in Kashmir will sponsor or subscribe to it, he said.

“It is important to note that the initiation of dialogue between India and Pakistan is a very healthy step. The people of Kashmir welcome the talks between these two neighbourly countries. However, as the dispute involves three parties, any attempt to strike a deal between two without the association of the third, will fail to yield a credible settlement,” Mirwaiz said.

He said the APHC, however, was not insisting on participation immediately if conditions are not ripe. We will wait for a more opportune opening. We have, however, sought separate audiences with President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee prior to any future negotiations.

The Hurriyat Conference is convinced that it can bridge the gap that separates India and Pakistan over Kashmir, because of its unique insights into what is fuelling the indigenous resistance and what would be acceptable to the people of Kashmir.

“India has just started conducting on more farcical election in Kashmir,” Farooq said.

These elections are meaningless so far as people of Jammu and Kashmir are concerned. “More importantly, the UN in its resolution 91 of 1951 and 122 of 1957 has made it abundantly clear that these elections will not be a substitute for the referendum and plebiscite in Kashmir,” he said.

The APHC asked the OIC:

1. To impress the Government of India to help initiate a durable, honourable and acceptable peace process to settle the conflict over Kashmir;

2. To pressur the government of India to put an end to all sorts of human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir and withdraw all draconian laws including POTA.

3. To persuade the Secretary-General of the UN to appoint a special envoy on Kashmir;

4. To allow international human rights and humanitarian agencies to have free access to asses the situation in this unfortunate land; and to call upon the Indian government to release all political prisoners who have been languishing in various Indian prisons for the last so many years including the leadership of Hurriyat Conference like Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mohammad Yasin Malik and Sheikh Abdul Aziz.

Mirwaiz was accompanied by President Mohammad Anwar Khan of AJK, Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai, Kashmiri American Council and Syed Faiz Naqshbandi, leader of APHC, AJK Chapter.